Every child can: Riverside School’s design-led approach to empower children
Kiran Bir Sethi, Mohanram Gudipati and Apoorva Bhandari
Harper Design
Rs.599
Pages 208

Design thinking-led learning offers a user-centric model for whole school improvement

Founded by Kiran Bir Sethi in 2001 and situated on the banks of the River Sabarmati offering a direct view of Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, The Riverside School has acquired a global reputation for the application of design thinking (defined as “a structured process to discover a solution based on insights from and about the user”), to every facet of education. It covers the entire practice of teaching — curriculum, timetable, pedagogy, teacher training, assessment, nutrition, extra-curricular activities, parent-teacher meetings, excursions, and community engagement.

This fresh approach has transformed K-12 learning in Riverside into a joyful and democratic process concomitantly with improving learning outcomes. For over a decade, Riverside School has been ranked among India’s Top 10 international day schools, and #1 in Gujarat in the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings (EWISR).

The authors are eminently qualified to explain design-led education. Sethi is an alumna of the prestigious National Institute of Design; Gudipati is a genetics and molecular biology graduate of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai and Cornell University (USA), and Bhandari, who developed Riverside’s pedagogy for science education, is professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences at Brown University, USA.

These distinguished authors provide live examples of how Riverside School demystified design-oriented learning. This approach requires five steps: empathise, define, ideate, prototype, and test. It also requires the cultivation of four “habits of mind” — (i) Be curious, start with empathy. (ii) Co-create, negotiate. (iii) Start small, grow big. (iv) Show, not tell.

The world over most schools expect adolescents to be on campus at the crack of dawn although research indicates that the release of melatonin and a change in the circadian cycle requires them to sleep until later in the morning. When they are compelled to wake up early, it not only deprives them of sleep but also makes them tired and anxious. As recounted in this book, Riverside confronted this issue by sharing research with class VIII students and involved them in co-creating the school’s timetable, thus giving them a say in deciding relaxed school timings.

In the end, a 9.30 a.m start time-table was adopted through a democratic process with full awareness that while students will benefit from a few additional hours of sleep, their after-school activities would be curtailed because of late start.

Breaking down processes in this manner is obviously more helpful than a lecture on the virtues of collaboration, because any educator reading this book is likely to think about difficulties that could sabotage a lofty vision. Thankfully, the book uses language that is friendly and comprehensible to people without a background in design. Learning from failure is part of design thinking, and Sethi has learnt well from her experiences with colleagues who felt intimidated by the language of design.

This book also reveals how the empathise-define-ideate-prototype-test process was reimagined and articulated as the feel-imagine-do-share (FIDS) process to allay apprehension about lack of formal design training. It proved critical for the school as it prompted willing engagement of teachers, parents, students, administrators and support staff in adopting an innovative design-led approach to find solutions.

One of the biggest takeaways from the book is the humility that design thinking teaches. Back in 2002, a year after the Riverside School was promoted, Sethi was appalled to learn that one of her students lived in a family that did not allow outdoor play. Assuming that the child’s parents were insensitive to the child’s needs, she called up the mother to talk about the importance and benefits of outdoor play. The parent could have chosen to get defensive; instead, she invited Sethi to their house to understand why the child was not allowed to play outdoors.

Sethi was surprised to witness the family home oozing love and joy rather than the stifling environment she had assumed. The apartment block that the eight-member family lived in had dozens of shops on the ground floor. It was located on a busy street with heavy road traffic. The neighbourhood lacked parks and open areas. The student had many opportunities to play indoors, but outdoor play was prohibited for reasons of safety. This incident prompted the school to adopt a policy whereby visiting the families of students became a regular activity for Riverside teachers. It helped teachers avoid drawing ill-informed conclusions based on subjective biases.

It’s axiomatic that schools are learning habitats for all, including adults. Sethi, for instance, was shocked when a parent of a Riverside student told her that her daughter justified an outburst by saying, “Kiran ma’am also does this!” It brought home the realisation that students pay attention to how adults around them behave and speak. This book counsels teachers/parents to be mindful of how they conduct themselves because children will emulate them.

Every Child Can acknowledges that Riverside’s approach to education does not work for all parents, which leads them to switch schools. One hopes that a future edition of the book will also have a section on how the school engages with these parents’ anxieties, with a section on the costs of integrating the design thinking process and how it affects school fees.

Chintan Girish Modi
(The Book Review)